"Pretty Woman" it isn't. A sex worker's life is filled with violence from
clients and police; with discrimination and scorn from the general public;
with drug addiction, homelessness and lack of health services.

And
by utilizing a "revolving door" approach where sex workers (the majority
of them women) are incarcerated time and again but never offered the economic,
psychological and social services they need, the criminal justice system
only exacerbates the problem and violates the civil and human rights of
sex workers in the process.

These
are some of the conclusions of a just-released study by the Sex Workers
Project, an initiative of the Urban Justice Center in New York City. The
study followed female, male and transgender street sex workers in New
York City, and analyzed specifically how they have been affected by the
city's infamous Zero Tolerance approach to law enforcement.

Meanwhile
similar results – rampant violence, harassment, substance abuse, health
and housing problems – were documented in a Chicago study released in
2001 by the Center for Impact Research. That study found 1,800 to 4,000
girls and women are involved in on- or off- street prostitution activities
in Chicago in any given year, along with about 11,500 people who trade
sex for drugs. These numbers – comparable in other major cities – show
that the mistreatment of sex workers is a significant national civil and
human rights situation that affects thousands and thousands of women (and
men) and by extension their children or other family members.

The
CIR study showed that 21.4 percent of women working as escorts had been
raped 10 times or more, with comparable rates for other types of sex work.
Meanwhile the rapes, beatings and other abuses male and female sex workers
suffer are rarely prosecuted.

“Crimes
against prostitutes usually go unpunished,” says the New York study, authored
by Juhu Thukral. “There is a tacit acceptance of this form of violence,
usually committed against women. The overwhelming majority of sex workers
did not go to police after they experienced violent incidents. Others
who attempted to report violent crimes were told by police that their
complaints would not be accepted, that this is what they should expect,
that they deserve all that they get.”

The
results of the Chicago and New York studies mirror situations reported
in anecdotes and quantitative studies done in other urban areas around
the country. The treatment of sex workers by police, the courts and their
clients – as well as the general population – should be seen as a violation
of the civil liberties and human rights of these women, and on a larger
scale, a collective violation of our society as a whole.

"The
police are getting away with murder," said Louise Lofton, a former sex
worker in Chicago who said police would often arrest her just for being
on a certain corner or stretch of street. "Maybe she was just trying to
go to the store. Sometimes you're trying to leave to go somewhere but
you know if you go down this street they'll get you."

On
a collective level, the mistreatment of female sex workers by police,
johns and society represents a vicious form of sexism and misogyny. Sex
workers’ customers, the vast majority of whom are men, may be vilified
by their spouses or communities when it is discovered that they regularly
visit or have visited sex workers, but this behavior is treated as an
individual act, not a condemnation of the man’s entire existence.

Women, on the other hand, are treated as if sex work is not just their
“job” or even their “crime,” but their entire existence. Police officers
and judges don’t treat sex workers as women who have violated a law, they
treat them as “prostitutes,” actually often referring to them in much
cruder terms. Likewise for johns who see them only as bodies or specific
body parts at that; and for the homeowners or angry wives who want them
out of their neighborhoods, seeing them as eyesores, temptresses or carriers
of disease rather than human beings.

This
societal treatment of sex workers on the moral level is mirrored on the
judicial level, where sex workers bear the brunt of the criminal justice
system while johns usually get off relatively lightly. In 2002, the Chicago
police department made 4,486 arrests for prostitution-related offenses.
That included 953 john-related arrests and 67 arrests for pimping/pandering,
so with the exception of some men arrested for male prostitution, women
were arrested at about four times the rate men were.

In
Chicago and many other cities, johns are usually charged with violating
city ordinances rather than actual crimes. They will have to pay about
$700 in fines and to recover their impounded cars, but the incident won’t
go on their criminal record and if they’re lucky their wives and neighbors
will never even find out. Women, meanwhile, will spend at least a night
or two in jail and may end up with months-long sentences and felony charges
on a third or fourth arrest.

Advocates
and lawyers for prostitutes note that just like the johns’ cases, prostitutes’
cases would often be dropped – if they fought the charges. Proving prostitution
or related charges like soliciting and trespassing is difficult, and in
most cases the evidence is fairly flimsy. But women charged with prostitution
rarely fight the charges. They are expected to show up in cattle-call
fashion before the judge, plead guilty and go off with a relatively light
sentence of time served or a brief stint in jail.

But
many of these “light” sentences add up to a long and stigmatizing rap
sheet that will haunt the woman for the rest of her life, as well as a
home life constantly interrupted by jail sentences and the ripple effect
that will have on her children, finances and other employment or goals.

After
being put through the wringer a few times and learning how to play the
game of serving their time and getting out with as little confrontation
as possible, most women don’t even consider that fighting their charges
is an option. And for those who do want to, it is hard to find a willing
and affordable lawyer. Public defenders almost automatically plead guilty
for their clients, and few lawyers, even those who regularly do pro bono
social justice work, are willing or able to take on prostitutes’ cases
for little or no pay.

Beside
the philosophical and political implications of the mass violations of
sex workers’ civil and human rights, their mistreatment carries concrete
costs for the rest of society. The most obvious example of this is the
spread of sexually transmitted diseases. If women are prevented from having
easy access to health clinics by lack of funding and police harassment,
as the New York study documents, it is only natural that they will be
more likely to suffer from HIV and other serious sexually transmitted
diseases that will not only wreak havoc on their own lives but also spread
to others in their communities.

And a system that allows johns to rape and otherwise abuse sex workers
without legal or societal retribution perpetuates violence against women
as a whole. It shouldn’t be surprising that a large number of women in
sex work were sexually abused as children.

Becoming
a prostitute at age 14 felt almost natural to Chicago resident Brenda
Myers, who now is one of the leaders of a group called Exodus that helps
women leave sex work.

Growing
up on the south side of Chicago, Myers used to see prostitutes outside
her window all the time. Often, they looked glamorous and mysterious.
When she found out what they were doing, it didn’t sound any worse to
her than experiences that were being forced upon her already.

“I
asked my grandmother what those women were doing,” she said. “She said,
‘They take their panties off for money.’ Well I was already being forced
to take my panties off, and I wasn’t getting any money.” A 1995 study
by the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) found that
people who were sexually abused as children are a whopping 27.7 times
as likely as others to be arrested for prostitution.

While
many sex workers do see their work as empowering and feminist, the reality
is that the vast majority of sex workers are doing it for the money, often
to feed drug habits, often because they feel they have no other viable
employment opportunities.

All
of the respondents in the New York study listed finances as their reason
for getting into sex work. The majority of respondents (22 of 30) also
listed substance abuse as the reason for turning to sex work, and the
Chicago study showed that almost all sex workers were substance abusers
and almost all increased their use of alcohol and drugs while engaging
in sex work, creating a vicious cycle where working to earn money to satisfy
their habit only increased their habit.

Both
the Chicago and New York studies offer recommendations for better ways
for law enforcement and community institutions to deal with prostitution.
The suggestions sound like common sense – offer sex workers meaningful
supportive services, including job training, affordable housing, health
care and counseling. Start treating sex workers like human beings with
civil and human rights, rather than criminals. And don't forget to address
the problem at the source: the portion of the customer base who are eager
to pay to exploit and abuse sex workers.

"If it wasn't for men you wouldn't have prostitution," said Myers. "They
think it's a joke, she's having a ball. No she isn't! They think they
didn't do anything wrong – 'My wife is pregnant and I deserve to have
my needs taken care of.' Well fuck your needs! And fuck the things you
do to us, things that would have you arrested if you tried to do them
to a date. Women need to be taught that their body isn’t an offering or
a sacrifice."

"In
about 85 percent of
cases, sexual assaults
occur between people
who know each other."Source: Diana Russell,
The Prevalence and Incidence of
Forcible Rape and Attempted Rape of Females, Victimology: An International
Journal 7, 1-4 (1983).